Thursday, June 28, 2007

When Animals Attacks, Chalk Art, And Physicians Vs. Midwives

When Birds Attack CarsYesterday, while driving on a normal road, in broad daylight, about 45mph, with my wife and daughter in the car -- a pigeon just flew right into my windshield (pow!), rolled over the roof, fell on the ground, and then bounced up and flew away quickly -- it was kind of like a Jackie Chan movie (I was waiting for the pigeon to give me a "thumbs up" sign from the rear view mirror.)My daughter:"Oh no!! Birdie! Daddy!! Birdie!!"Me:"See - that's what happens when pigeons do drugs.... Stay away from drugs!!"

(yes, I know Posh Spice has nothing to do with this, I just can't help but feel patriotic)Chalk Art On the Sidewalk And Driveway.When I was a kid, my dad use to bring chalk home from his job and leave it in a small box by his car keys (he worked for a trucking company – a teamster - always complaining about something, as teamsters usually do.) I loved that basic white plain chalk; I would take it and draw all over our driveway (and neighbors driveways, sidewalks, on the street...) top views of “fancy” streets, houses, KITT, people walking dogs, dog poop, construction areas, even sinkholes with aliens and Manimal. Then I would ride with my big wheel along with the other kids through this ‘totally awesome’ town -- that's until somebody watered their driveway or lawn.Fast forward to last week – we’re driving through no-man land and we stopped at a Wal-Mart for, like soap or something weird like that, and on the center aisle they had big buckets of sidewalk chalk for some crazy-low price of like $4.88 (with a smiley face near it.)“Sidewalk Chalk”? What a novel idea. And for $4.88? (How's is that even possible? Oh yeah, orphan labor in China...) Not only did they have that, but they also had paint sprayers, brushes, and rakes. When did all this happen?Now my driveway looks like the Sistine Chapel (well not really) except with toddler marks all over it, mixed in with some random drawings by the neighborhood kids who walk on over and ask if they can “help”. Which I let them, of course. But they just can’t “help” on “my” area of the driveway – (Manimal needs to live in peace.)

Medical And Nursing Boards Vs. Midwives In L.A.On a serious note, I get a lot of inquiries (and searches) about a post I did nearly 2 years ago when my daughter was born about people interested in natural water births, nurse Midwives, and Doulas. My wife did a completely natural water birth in a tub - with only me, our Midwife, and a Doula present. The whole experience and the care my wife got was absolutely amazing, extremely safe, and way beyond what any traditional doctor provides. And this place is by far the best birthing center here in Southern California (it looks like a B&B.) I’m bringing all this up because our Midwife, Marcia McCulley, was recently arrested at gunpoint at her practice, in front of her patients, because the physicians at the local hospital (Seventh-Day Adventist in Simi Valley) want to prevent a women’s choice in their OB care, reproductive issues, and above all honoring parents birth plans and wishes.The physicians made claims with the medical and nursing board to revoke her license, which costs them nothing to do, but cost a Midwife - with a small practice - a fortune in legal fees. Whatever your position on birth, women should be able to choose - even if it means having a baby in a hospital, home, or birthing center.For those interested there is a Midwife Defense Fund here in Southern California.If you would like to make a tax deductible donation to the defense charity:

(PS- I'll find out soon if they use Paypal)For those here in SoCal, there’s going to be a charity auction event in August and I’ll be donating a whole lot of artwork. I’ll have more information on that in a couple of weeks.

on point number 1 - i rolled over a squirrel on my bike once. Seriously. He got up and ran away. I think he probably had internal injuries, though.

on point number 3 -I wished I could have done the midwife thing, in water, and all that, but I lived in Bakersfield at the time. You live in CA. You feel my pain. And those folks in Simi? Bonkers! so sorry to hear that.

Oh, you want to talk party-time adventure craziness? Try getting dive-bombed by an angry pigeon on a motorcycle. I think he thought I was trying to steal his girl or something. Hit me once and came back for more. Ah, good times! Good times...

Dude, I had a robin dive-bomb my car the other day as I was going about 70. PLUNK!

Side-walk chalk rocks! My girls spend hours in the driveway making designs. They so want the rakes and all that stuff. Have you tried the sidewalk paint? It is goopy and goes on like paint, but dries as chalk.

I really wanted a water birth but none of the hospitals around here did them. I did however, have a really awesome traditional OB. I wish your mid wife luck!

3: When I drove to Starbucks I thought the line of people outside the ice cream store was waiting for a free cone. Only later did I realize it was an AT&T store and they were waiting for one of those phones. I just don't get it.

My Parents-in-law once got out of their car after a trip anmd found a full bir wing embedded in the hinge of their door. They hadn't even noticed hitting it. Bet the bird did.

And as to the midwives - here we have licensed ones and they have hospital privileges in many places. My hospital's birthing centre has whirlpools in many rooms, though I'm not sure if they do water births or not. Home birth is a not-uncommon option, too. Yeah, I think women should be able to choose, as long as there is some kind of regulating going on simply for the issue of people getting cared fro by people who know what they're doing and follow some guidelines about safe practices. And I think midwives totally do that. (Of course, I have one of the very few family doctors who still do births, and she's been my doctor since I was 5, so I went with her because I luuurve her.)

Midwives get held at gunpoint over there? Has the world gone mad? I am a midwife and we are treated with respect over here by families and obstetricians and other health care professionals! We are only doing our job after all, like anyone else...Please do let me know if they accept paypal...shocked beyond further words...

The midwife case is right up there with the hospital my sister went to to have her second child. My sister could only find one doctor on her insurance plan, that doctor was affiliated with a St. Josephs, which refused to do a tubal ligation at my sister's request because of the Catholic affiliation(my niece was her second, my nephew her first and my sister was already in her mid-30's).

What is up with people and their Nazi-like determination to control other womens' birth processes?

I've seen a documentary about how midwives aren't so common in the USA as in Britain.Here, everyone gets a midwife and you only see a doctor if there are complications expected or if something happens during the birth.I had my two in a birthing pool in the local hospital, with only the community midwife attending, plus a trainee midwife who wanted to see a birthing pool in action.It's terrible to hear the attitude to midwives there.

DJ Kirkby - I'll post more once I hear. But they are setting up some kind of Paypal or similar system.

junebee - Yikes!! I didn't know they can refuse to do that. How frightening.

beta mum - In some areas that is starting to happen. Here in L.A. with hospitals sporting really high C-section rates, it's become more of a oddity to want a midwife assisted birth.The sad part is, most people we know schedule their C-section as if were a going to see a movie. But that's their choice. Although, that should infringe on those who wish to use a midwife.Hospitals and doctors out here automatically default to a C-section birth as the norm.

Interesting story, Creative-Type. My wife had a similar birth here in Denver. I would say "we" had a similar birth, but let's be honest, my "heavy lifting" was just saying things like, "Remember your breathing, honey!" and "Do you want the water to be warmer?"

It's really too bad that things are making those kinds of births impossible in some parts of the country. It just doesn't make any sense to me.